Gold Coast Tourism Statistics

Over 3.7 million domestic overnight visitors travelled to the Gold Coast in 2022 (year ending September 2022).

• Domestic visitors were up 23% when compared with the over 3 million from 2021 (year ending September 2021)
• Data for international visitors is not yet available for this period

How much did visitors spend on the Gold Coast in 2022?

Domestic visitors spent over $4.2 billion during trips to the Gold Coast in 2022 (year ending September 2022).

• Spend was up 50% when compared with the over $2.7 billion spent in 2021 (year ending September 2021)
• Data for international visitors is not yet available for this period

Over 3.7 million visitors travelled to the Gold Coast in the year ending June 2020¹.

• This total was made up of 734,000 international visitors and 3 million domestic visitors.
• Visitors were down 27.4% when compared with the over 5.1 million visitors in 2019.

How much did tourists spend on the Gold Coast in 2020?

Visitors spend over $3.6 billion during trips to the Gold Coast in the year ending June 2020.

• International visitors contributed $962 million while over $2.7 billion came from domestic sources.
• Spend was down 27.9% when compared with the over $5 billion spent in 2019.

• The Gold Coast ranked 5th amongst the most frequently visited regions in Australia.
• At $1.4 billion, the Gold Coast ranked 5th in terms of expenditure by international tourists.

Why do international tourists spend less on the Gold Coast than other Australian destinations?

• International tourists stay on the Gold Coast for an average of 9 nights.
• This means stays on the Gold Coast are generally shorter than stays in other destinations.
• A shorter length of stay means less is spent when visiting.

Visiting the Gold Coast Can be Expensive for International Tourists

• The Gold Coast ranks 2nd for per night expenditure at $140 per night, following Tropical North Queensland.
• This means more revenue is generated per customer per night; however, it could also be part of the reason for fewer average nights spent by travellers to the Gold Coast.

Top Source Markets

• With a 26% share in the number of international visitors, China was the top source country for the Gold Coast in 2018-19, followed by New Zealand with 20% of the share.

• The Gold Coast received 4.2 million domestic visitors in 2018/19.
• At $3.77 billion, the Gold Coast was 6th in terms of domestic expenditure.

• The number of camping trips throughout Queensland has grown by 45.8% over the 10-year period from 2008 to 2018².
• In 2018 over 1.3 million overnight camping trips were made in Queensland.
• Camping trips – including caravan, campervan, commercial and non-commercial camping – made up 13.9% of visitor nights for domestic travellers to Queensland in 2019 (year ending September)